Zakariya al-Ansari

1420 (age 100)

Egyptian province of Sharqiyya

During his adolescence, al- Ansārī moved to Cairo to study at al-Azhar University. He lived in such poverty there, that he would venture out into the night in search of water faucets and the rinds of watermelon. However, according to al-Ansārī’s own account, after a few years at al-Azhar, a mill worker came to his aid. He provided the young al-Ansārī with money for his food, clothing and books. al-Ansārī told of a remarkable encounter with his benefactor told him, Eventually, this foretelling would prove to be accurate. Zakariyyā al-Ansārī held the office of Shāfi’ī qādī for a twenty-year period during the reign of Qā’it Bey. Over the course of his lifetime, al-Ansārī spent eighty years engaged as a teacher and muftī. One of al-Ansārī students was al-Sha’rānī, who was responsible for much of the information that survives in regards to the life of al-Ansārī. Al-Ansārī held several teaching positions over the course of his life, which included professorships at the madrasa of the mausoleum of al-Shāfī and the madrasa Jāmaliyya. Fifty-two writings are listed under al-Ansārī’s name in Brockelmann’s Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur. Some of al-Ansārī’s most famous works include: Manhaj al-tullab (“The Way of the Students”), Fath al-Wahhab (“The help of the Bountiful”), Tuhfat al-tullāb (“The Gift offered to the Students”), Lubb al-usul (“The Kernel of the Science of the roots”), and his commentary on al-Qushairī’s Risāla fī ‘l-tasawwuf. So encompassing was his interest, that al-Ansārī claimed no one expected much of anything from him in the way of legal studies. Al-Ansārī studied, and was initiated as a Sufi under Muhammad al-Ghamrī. In this commentary he defines tasawwuf in a number of ways, complete earnestness in the progression towards the King of all kings;… it is the devotion to works of good and the avoidance of defects.” In terms of al-Ansārī’s Sufi legacy, his name is also remembered in connection to his student al-Sha’rānī. Al-Ansārī died in 1520, in Cairo, at the age of 100. Al-Ansārī gained fame especially in Indonesia and Malaya due to his frequent mention as a source for Malay writers.

Zakariya al-Ansari

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historian school teacher qadi

Background

He was born in or around 1420 CE, in Sunaika, located in the Egyptian province of Sharqiyya.

Education

While a student, al- Ansārī studied under al-Qāyāti, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalāni, Jalāl al-Dīn al Mahallī and Sharaf al-Din al Munawi. Of his teacher, al-Sha’rānī wrote that al-Ansārī was, “a pillar of the fiqh and the tasawwuf”.

Career

During his adolescence, al- Ansārī moved to Cairo to study at al-Azhar University. He lived in such poverty there, that he would venture out into the night in search of water faucets and the rinds of watermelon. However, according to al-Ansārī’s own account, after a few years at al-Azhar, a mill worker came to his aid.

He provided the young al-Ansārī with money for his food, clothing and books. al-Ansārī told of a remarkable encounter with his benefactor told him,

Eventually, this foretelling would prove to be accurate. Zakariyyā al-Ansārī held the office of Shāfi’ī qādī for a twenty-year period during the reign of Qā’it Bey. Over the course of his lifetime, al-Ansārī spent eighty years engaged as a teacher and muftī.

One of al-Ansārī students was al-Sha’rānī, who was responsible for much of the information that survives in regards to the life of al-Ansārī. Al-Ansārī held several teaching positions over the course of his life, which included professorships at the madrasa of the mausoleum of al-Shāfī and the madrasa Jāmaliyya. Fifty-two writings are listed under al-Ansārī’s name in Brockelmann’s Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur.

Some of al-Ansārī’s most famous works include: Manhaj al-tullab (“The Way of the Students”), Fath al-Wahhab (“The help of the Bountiful”), Tuhfat al-tullāb (“The Gift offered to the Students”), Lubb al-usul (“The Kernel of the Science of the roots”), and his commentary on al-Qushairī’s Risāla fī ‘l-tasawwuf. So encompassing was his interest, that al-Ansārī claimed no one expected much of anything from him in the way of legal studies. Al-Ansārī studied, and was initiated as a Sufi under Muhammad al-Ghamrī.

In this commentary he defines tasawwuf in a number of ways, complete earnestness in the progression towards the King of all kings;… it is the devotion to works of good and the avoidance of defects.”

In terms of al-Ansārī’s Sufi legacy, his name is also remembered in connection to his student al-Sha’rānī. Al-Ansārī died in 1520, in Cairo, at the age of 100. Al-Ansārī gained fame especially in Indonesia and Malaya due to his frequent mention as a source for Malay writers.

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